ThePianoMag Blog
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Our Woman at the Cliburn: Awards I Would Like to See
- Published on Monday, 10 June 2013 00:41
- Written by Susan Geffen
I thought about doing a straightforward review. After all, I just heard three concerti: Mozart, Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff. But the Cliburn Awards Ceremony begins in less than one hour (and, after a ten-block sort-of-sprint in the humid heat, I really need to take a shower). So I will throw out a brief list of awards I would like to see. I can’t outguess the jury anyway.
Cadenza Award
Vadym Kholodenko and Nikita Mndoyants tie for this one. Both men wrote cadenzas for their Mozart concerti, and how refreshing (and in the spirit of Mozart) to hear something new! I wrote about Mndoyants’s cadenza in my last post, so in this one I will give huge kudos to the delightful, well constructed, and just plain fun cadenzas Kholodenko played today.
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Our Woman at the Cliburn: My Heart Beats for Beatrice
- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 23:00
- Written by Susan Geffen
Just as all we who entered here were (almost) ready to abandon hope, Lovely Beatrice revived. We had suspected that her fire was there; if anyone could ignite it, Prokofiev could. And boy, did he ever create an inferno.
Beatrice Rana’s Thursday-night Beethoven Third was a very correct (if a bit tepid) performance. I had, however, heard the webcast version of her Schumann quintet [see my earlier post, “Our Woman at the Cliburn: Dante and Schumann”], and I was hoping that Rana would go for it with the Prokofiev. And indeed she did.
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Our Woman at the Cliburn: Anybody got an Aspirin?
- Published on Friday, 07 June 2013 13:54
- Written by Susan Geffen
As I walked back to my Fort Worth hotel this evening, this conversation caught my ear:
“We heard our winner tonight. Don’t you think we heard our winner tonight?”
Well…maybe. Or maybe not. Results of piano competitions can surprise both audience and critics, and it is still quite early in the Cliburn finals. Between now and Sunday afternoon, there will be four performances featuring three concerti each. Grab a cup of coffee before you take your seat!
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Our Woman at the Cliburn: Things Are Looking Up
- Published on Saturday, 08 June 2013 05:44
- Written by Susan Geffen
Don’t tell my husband—although he already knows—but I have a long-standing crush on the Prokofiev Third. What can I say? It has everything: excitement, humor, personality, sensitivity, and drive. Really, how can I resist?
Apparently, I’m not the only one. The Prokofiev Third was, fittingly, the third concerto of this evening’s Cliburn Finals program, and I have the distinct feeling that Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko, 26, is in love with the piece. He was at complete ease throughout, and his performance on the Cliburn’s American Steinway (mirabile dictu, no New York Hamburg tonight!) never lost me. A delightful bonus was that the Fort Worth Symphony, led by Leonard Slatkin, listened and responded to Kholodenko’s energy in a way I hadn’t heard up to this point.
Our Woman at the Cliburn: Handicapping the Concerti
- Published on Sunday, 02 June 2013 18:26
- Written by Susan Geffen
Question of the day: Has anyone else compulsively looked at the repertoire lists and estimated which concerti we will hear in the finals?
If someone (say, for instance, me), assembles a spreadsheet of the semifinalists’ listed concerto repertoire, she can take bets as to what we will hear in the latter part of next week. Here are the odds:
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